Laying bare your finances to apply for health care WASHINGTON (AP) — After a storm of complaints, the Obama administration on Tuesday unveiled simplified forms to apply for insurance under the president’s new health care law. You won’t have to lay bare your medical history but you will have to detail your finances. An earlier version of the forms had provoked widespread griping that they were as bad as tax forms and might overwhelm uninsured people, causing them to give up in frustration. The ...

Tests link deadly ricin to Obama letter suspect TUPELO, Miss. (AP) — Ricin was found in the former martial arts studio of the man suspected of sending poison letters to President Barack Obama and other public officials, and was also discovered on a dust mask and other items he threw in the trash, federal prosecutors said in a court document made public Tuesday. The affidavit says an FBI surveillance team saw James Everett Dutschke remove several items from the studio in Tupelo, Miss., on Ap...

Brighter view on jobs and pay lifts US confidence WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are more optimistic the job market is healing and will deliver higher pay later this year. That brighter outlook, along with rising home prices, cheaper gasoline and a surging stock market, could offset some of the drag from the recent tax increases and government spending cuts. A gauge of consumer confidence rose in April, reversing a decline in March, the Conference Board, a private research group, said Tuesday. T...

Information sharing before bombings under review WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said Tuesday his counterterrorism bureaucracy “did what it was supposed to be doing” before the Boston Marathon bombing as his top intelligence official began a review into whether sensitive information was adequately shared and whether the U.S. government could have disrupted the attack. “We want to go back and we want to review every step that was taken,” Obama told a White House news conference. “We ...

Officials say threatened FAA towers to remain open WASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has assured lawmakers the Obama administration will prevent the closure of 149 small airport towers as well as end furloughs of air traffic controllers nationwide as a result of legislation passed by Congress, according to officials involved in negotiations on the bill. The disclosure came as senators sought signatures on a letter to LaHood saying that that their support of the legislation ...

FDA: Morning-after pill OK for ages 15 and up WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is moving the morning-after pill over the counter but only those 15 and older can buy it — an attempt to find middle ground just days before a court-imposed deadline to lift all age restrictions on the emergency contraceptive. Today, Plan B One-Step is sold behind pharmacy counters, and buyers must prove they’re 17 or older to buy it without a prescription or else see a doctor first. Tuesday’s decision by the F...

FDA will investigate added caffeine in foods WASHINGTON (AP) — Looking for a new way to get that jolt of caffeine energy? Food companies are betting snacks like potato chips, jelly beans and gum with a caffeinated kick could be just the answer. The Food and Drug Administration is closely watching the marketing of these foods and wants to know more about their safety. The FDA said Monday it will look at the foods’ effects on children in response to a caffeinated gum introduced this week b...

Outraged lawmakers look to change military justice WASHINGTON (AP) — Outrage over an Air Force officer’s decision to overturn a jury’s guilty verdict in a sexual assault case has Republicans and Democrats joining forces on ambitious legislation to change the military justice system. On both sides of the Capitol, lawmakers have interpreted Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s recent proposal to essentially strip commanding officers of their ability to reverse criminal convictions of service members ...

US consumers keep spending despite higher taxes WASHINGTON (AP) — This year got off to a sour start for U.S. workers: Their pay, already gasping to keep pace with inflation, was suddenly shrunk by a Social Security tax increase. Which raised a worrisome question: Would consumers stop spending and further slow the economy? Nope. Not yet, anyway. On Friday, the government said consumers spent 3.2 percent more on an annual basis in the January-March quarter than in the previous quarter — the b...

Pending US home sales reach 3-year high in March WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes rose in March to the highest level in three years, pointing to higher sales this spring. The National Association of Realtors said Monday that its seasonally adjusted index for pending home sales rose 1.5 percent to 105.7. That’s the highest since April 2010, when a homebuyer’s tax credit boosted sales. It’s also above February’s reading of 104.1. There is generally a ...

Obama hints at potential military action in Syria WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama signaled Tuesday he would consider U.S. military action against Syria if “hard, effective evidence” is found to bolster intelligence that chemical weapons have been used in the 2-year-old civil war. Among the potential options being readied for him: weapons and ammunition for the Syrian rebels. Despite such planning, Obama appealed for patience during a White House news conference, saying he needed more...

Arkansas prepares to launch Medicaid IG office LITTLE ROCK (AP) — As Arkansas moves forward with a plan to offer subsidized health insurance to thousands of low-income residents, it is preparing to reorganize its Medicaid program to create a new office that would investigate fraud and waste complaints. Under a measure Gov. Mike Beebe signed into law last week, 33 staffers from the Department of Human Services will begin working this summer under an independent office that will investigate ...

Lottery hopes to boost revenue, profit marginLITTLE ROCK (AP) — A bill that would have required the Arkansas lottery to turn at least a 25 percent annual profit didn’t make it out of committee this year, but the lottery director said Monday he expects similar bills to be proposed in future legislative sessions. “We were very fortunate to get that bill defeated,” lottery Director Bishop Woosley said. Woosley spoke to the Arkansas Lottery Commission, which met Monday in Little Rock. The lo...

Russia caught bomb suspect on wiretapWASHINGTON (AP) — Russian authorities secretly recorded a telephone conversation in 2011 in which one of the Boston bombing suspects vaguely discussed jihad with his mother, officials said Saturday, days after the U.S. government finally received details about the call. In another conversation, the mother of now-dead bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrela...

FAA: Air traffic system soon at full operation NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration said that the U.S. air traffic system will resume normal operations by Sunday evening after lawmakers rushed a bill through Congress allowing the agency to withdraw furloughs of air traffic controllers and other workers. The FAA said Saturday that it has suspended all employee furloughs and that traffic facilities will begin returning to regular staffing levels over the next 24 hours. The fur...

US tries new aerial tools in Caribbean drug fight ABOARD THE HIGH SPEED VESSEL SWIFT (AP) — Drug smugglers who race across the Caribbean in speedboats will typically jettison their cargo when spotted by surveillance aircraft, hoping any chance of prosecuting them will vanish with the drugs sinking to the bottom of the sea. That may be a less winning tactic in the future. The U.S. Navy on Friday began testing two new aerial tools, borrowed from the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, that of...

Some say immigration bill is bad deal for the GOP WASHINGTON (AP) — Some feisty Republicans are challenging a claim widely held among GOP leaders that the party must support more liberal immigration laws if it’s to be more competitive in presidential elections. These doubters say the Republican establishment has the political calculation backward. Immigration “reform,” they say, will mean millions of new Democratic-leaning voters by granting citizenship to large numbers of Hispanic immigrants...

New conservative lobbying push for gay marriage ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A national group of prominent GOP donors that supports gay marriage is pouring new money into lobbying efforts to get Republican lawmakers to vote to make it legal. American Unity PAC was formed last year to lend financial support to Republicans who bucked the party’s longstanding opposition to gay marriage. Its founders are launching a new lobbying organization, American Unity Fund, and already have spent more than $250...

Fight against terror takes pals to the White House WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama had gone to his residence after a difficult week when an urgent email brought him rushing back to the Oval Office. The suspect in the Boston bombings had been apprehended. “They have him in custody, it is white hat,” White House counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco wrote chief of staff Denis McDonough. That was reference to the cap that 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was seen wearing in surveillance vide...

Leader of Cuban opposition group visits exiles CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — The leader of a Cuban opposition group awarded Europe’s top human rights prize spoke strongly against the Castro brothers during a visit Saturday to Miami, where the exile community received her message with enthusiastic applause. “We want a Cuba in which liberty exists,” Berta Soler, co-founder of the Ladies in White, said. “Where there is democracy. And where there is respect for human rights. And also, we are fight...